Only five things in Tella use credits: messages to the Tella Agent, Auto Layouts, Remove mistakes, Auto Capture takes, and generating an AI video clip. Everything else, including recording, editing, transcripts, subtitles, AI images, AI sound effects, exporting and sharing, never uses credits.
All five spend the same workspace balance. For how many credits your plan includes, top-ups and checking your balance, see How do Credits work?.
What uses credits
How many credits does a Tella Agent message use?
It depends on how much work the agent does and which model it uses. A quick change like “cut the first five seconds” uses few credits; a big edit across a long video, a larger model or a higher thinking level uses more. If you stop a reply partway, the work the agent did before you stopped it still uses credits.
If you connect your ChatGPT or Claude plan, that provider’s models don’t use credits for the model itself. Each message still uses a small amount of credits for the agent’s helper steps and its editing workspace.
Does Auto Layouts use credits?
Yes. Generate and Regenerate in Auto Layouts send the request to the Tella Agent, so they use credits the same way an agent message does. Applying or changing a layout yourself doesn’t.
Does Remove mistakes use credits?
Yes. Remove mistakes, in the Cut panel or the script panel’s … menu, has the Tella Agent find and cut the mistakes in your clip, so it uses credits the same way an agent message does, including when you approve or reject its cuts in the chat. Removing silences, buffers and filler words doesn’t use credits.
Does Auto Capture use credits?
Yes. Each take uses credits for the AI that explores and scripts the page and for the machines that record it. Takes that stop to ask a question, fail or are cancelled partway still use credits for the work done until then.
Does generating an AI video use credits?
Yes. Each video clip you generate uses credits, and higher-quality models, higher resolutions and longer clips use more. In the model picker, Seedance 2.0 Fast uses fewer credits and Seedance 2.0 Mini uses the fewest. A generation that fails doesn’t use any credits.
Each clip also counts as one generation against your weekly AI generation allowance.
Does generating an AI image or sound effect use credits?
No. AI images and AI sound effects don’t use credits. They count against your weekly AI generation allowance instead, which resets every week.
What doesn’t use credits
Everything in Tella that isn’t listed above is free to use on your plan, including:
- Recording with the Mac, Windows, web or Chrome extension recorder
- Editing by hand in the editor: cuts, layouts, zooms, overlays, backgrounds and effects
- Transcripts, retranscribing and editing the transcript
- Subtitles and translated subtitles
- Removing silences, Studio Voice and eye contact
- Uploading media and picking from the Media Library
- AI images and AI sound effects
- Exporting, downloading, sharing and embedding videos
- The Public API and MCP server, except for generating AI video clips and running Auto Capture takes
What still works when we’re out of credits?
Everything except the five features above. When the balance hits zero, the Tella Agent, Auto Layouts and Remove mistakes stop accepting requests, Auto Capture takes can’t start, and you can’t generate AI videos. You can keep recording, editing, exporting and sharing as usual, and those features work again as soon as a workspace owner buys a top-up or your monthly allowance resets. Last modified on October 22, 2026
